Paul Thurrott responds to my “Speaking of Clowns”, but addresses none of my actual points of criticism (other than to reiterate his acclaim for Enderle’s nutty idea that “Steve Jobs” is a construct created by “Apple’s agency”). He finishes with this:

But I do know this: Both Enderle and Forrester are credible.

Enderle’s track record speaks for itself. As for Forrester, they themselves have stated that the report Enderle is talking about does not show a drop in iTunes Store music sales. They say iTunes sales are “leveling off”, meaning that growth is slowing, not that sales are dropping — a big difference.

(Most of the reports I’ve seen, though, indicate that iTunes Store growth continues to grow at about the same rate as iPod sales — the average number of iTunes Store songs sold per iPod has remained remarkably steady at about 20–25.)